The question of who should control Britney Spears' affairs was posed in a court filing Friday, as her parents made a surprise appearance at a conservatorship hearing while their daughter was under psychiatric evaluation in a nearby nut house hospital. It was not immediately clear who made the filing, or whether it sought to establish control over Spears affairs in whole or in part. Lynne Spears and James Spears, his eyes very red, entered a Superior Court room Friday without commenting to reporters. "There is a conservatorship filing" and a hearing was scheduled, court spokesman Allan Parachini said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. He gave no details, including who made the filing.
Conservatorships are created to care for people deemed by a court to be incapable of taking care of themselves or managing their finances. A court appoints another individual or organization to act as the person's "conservator," taking charge of the person's care or finances or, in some cases, both.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"The U.S. to follow"
Posted by: E Brown ||
02/02/2008 1:01 Comments ||
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#2
Calling it some weired amadol stimjulant. But from a picture that I saw looks like a stone cold meth freak from the trailer park.
#6
I feel sorry for her now. She is so ill that I think the media should leave her alone. But they won't be happy until they hound her into suicide and feed on her corpse.
Military officials, rebels and international aid workers confirmed fighting around the presidential palace. Clashes began early Saturday 20 kilometers outside the capital, before engulfing the city center. Residents in N'Djamena say they heard increasingly intense heavy arms fire. They say rebels occupied the east and south of the capital, and that there was fighting around the airport as well.
Looks like curtains for Deby.
An exiled rebel spokesman who has been in contact with rebels on the ground, Makaila Nguebla, says Chad's army has offered little resistance.
Yep. He's a goner.
He says rebels from several groups who allied themselves for this offensive were able to cross Chad over the course of one week from their bases near Sudan and enter the capital in one day.
It's Sudan's involvement that concerns me. Nobody gives a squat about Iblis Deby except maybe his Mom.
The rebels say that if they take over, they will impose transitional rule for two years before organizing free and fair elections. Chad has had several coups since independence from France in 1960.
I think it's actually been one coup after another up until Iblis. Then -- stagnation.
The newly-elected head of the African Union, Gabon's Foreign Minister Jean Ping, said he was very worried by the situation. He also said the African Union would not accept an unconstitutional change of government.
Right. That means the rebels will have to shoot Iblis, rather than just chasing him out of the country.
President Deby has been in power since 1990.
Well, shucks. That's only 18 years.
Several years ago, he changed the constitution to allow unlimited presidential terms.
Are you watching, Hugo?
He went to the scene of fighting Friday, before returning to the capital.
Ah, yes. The traditional brief visit to the front, followed by a hasty retreat to the capital to... ummm... check on the foreign currency reserves. And pack.
Military officials who spoke to media did not immediately disclose his location.
My guess is it will soon be Gay Paree. And the Romanians say they want their flag back.
President Kibaki has stood his ground Orange Democratic Movement should seek legal redress over its claims of a stolen victory in the presidential election. He said this as the UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki Moon, made a direct intervention on the Kenyan crisis. President Kibaki also blamed the Opposition for instigating the widespread violence that has rocked Kenya, saying it was a deep-laid pre-meditated plot.
On the ongoing mediation effort, Kibaki noted that the solution does not lie in power-sharing but in a long-term solution addressing the underlying problems. Kibaki, addressing the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa where the Kenyan post-election crisis formed part of top agenda, said the allegations of irregularities should be referred to the legal system.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2008 00:00 ||
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A police officer in Kenya shot dead an opposition MP yesterday, the second killed in a week, triggering fatal protests and interrupting talks to try to end more than a month of violence.
Fresh protests erupted yesterday after David Kimutai Too, an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) MP, was killed in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret. Hussein Ali, the police commissioner, said Mr Too's murder was a "crime of passion". The traffic police officer responsible, who had been arrested, shot a fellow officer believed to be his girlfriend along with the MP, Mr Ali said.
However, Raila Odinga, the ODM leader, insisted it was a political act. "I condemn this second execution of an ODM member of parliament. The purpose of this killing is to reduce the ODM majority," he said.
Shops shut down in Eldoret and some residents began to leave as protesters in the suburbs took to the streets. Witnesses said soldiers fired into the air, killing at least one person. "When we heard about the death of the MP everybody came out. A Kenyan army Land Rover appeared and they started shooting," one resident, Willy Kiboi, said. "One Sudanese man is dead and three people are injured."
On roads around Eldoret, youths with bows and arrows stopped cars, and smoke rose from burning homes. A crowd gathered outside the police station, demanding that the accused be handed over. "Let him be brought out so we can do our own justice," one protester shouted. "This is a government plot to wipe out the ODM."
In a related matter, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Thursday evacuated most of its staff from its office in a town in eastern Chad after a series of armed attacks this week on the agency and other aid organizations operating in the region. Five vehicles, belonging to the Agency, its non-governmental partners and Medecins Sans Fronti}res Suisse, were stolen at gunpoint in the past few days.
Chad on Friday warned the Security Council that it intends to use all means at its disposal, including cross-border incursions into Sudan, to defend the country from the aggression "orchestrated" by Khartoum, and called on the members to urge Sudan to stop this "macabre venture."
"The Chadian Government intends to make use of the full range of means at its disposal, including hot pursuit of the aggressors, to exercise its right of self-defence against the aggression orchestrated and strongly supported by the Sudan," Chadian envoy Mahamat Ali Adoum said in a letter to the Security Council President. Adoum informed the council of "this grave situation, which has spread to the centre of the country, and requested the council to take note of it, because it is a flagrant violation by this neighbouring country of its commitments and a threat to peace and security in the sub-region."
Quoting from a Government communique issued earlier this week, Adoum complained that mercenaries, backed by the Sudanese forces, were emboldened by their attacks on Moudeina and Adde, felt they could take on Chad's defence and security forces and continued their adventure with an attack on Oum-Hadjer.
Continued on Page 49
Deeply concerned by the resumption of fighting in Chad, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday reiterated the UN condemnation of the use of military means to seize power, his deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe told the daily press briefing.
She said Ban "calls on all parties to abide by their commitments under the different peace accords signed by them and to urgently resort to dialogue to reach a peaceful and negotiated settlement of this latest crisis." Ban, she added, "deplores any action that could worsen the already grave humanitarian situation" especially in eastern Chad where the international community is actively engaged in activities to provide relief and secure the voluntary, safe and sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons in eastern Chad and north-eastern Central African Republic.
An allied rebel force, hostile to President Idriss Deby, who swiftly crossed the border from Sudan earlier this week, clashed earlier in the day with government forces near Ndjamena, the capital.
Chadian UN envoy Mahamat Ali Adoum said in a letter to the Security Council President earlier in the day saying his government "intends to make use of the full range of means at its disposal, including hot pursuit of the aggressors (rebels), to exercise its right of self-defence against the aggression orchestrated and strongly supported by the Sudan."
Zimbabwe has extradited Briton Simon Mann, a leader of alleged mercenaries, to Equatorial Guinea to face coup plot charges, his lawyer says. The ex-SAS officer was jailed in Zimbabwe on arms charges in 2004, and rearrested after his release last May.
On Wednesday the High Court turned down an appeal against his extradition - his lawyers argued he could face torture. He was flown out of the country without his legal team's knowledge before they could lodge a final appeal, they said. There has been no official confirmation of the extradition from the Zimbabwean government.
Mann's lawyer Jonathan Samkange said he had gone to visit him in prison on Friday morning, only to be told he was no longer there.
"They deported him at night, late Wednesday night," Mr Samkange said. "There are affidavits to that effect." He said he found out about Mann's departure only after he had filed a final appeal with the Supreme Court in Harare.
"The idea was that by the time we filed a notice of appeal he would have gone," Mr Samkange said. "This was designed to defeat the notice of our appeal. Deporting a person at night is not only mischievous but unlawful."
Mann, 55, a former British special forces officer, was detained in 2004 when his plane landed in Zimbabwe from South Africa. He was accused of trying to fetch arms for a coup against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and jailed. More than 60 men arrested with him - most of them South African citizens of Angolan origin - were released in 2005 after serving a year's sentence in Zimbabwe.
Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former UK Prime Minister now Baroness Thatcher, was fined and received a suspended sentence in South Africa for his involvement in the affair. Another 23 people, mostly South Africans, were convicted in Equatorial Guinea itself. One South African, Nick du Toit, remains in prison in Equatorial Guinea, serving a 34-year sentence.
Officials in Equatorial Guinea have said Mann will get a fair trial and will not face the death penalty. Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich former Spanish colony, has been ruled by President Obiang since he seized power from his uncle in a coup in 1979.
Equatorial Guinea has a poor human rights record. Amnesty International says that a German national arrested in the country over the same alleged coup plot was tortured before he died in prison. In 2005, Amnesty reported that those arrested in Equatorial Guinea faced starvation, as they had been given just a cup of rice a day. Officials in Equatorial Guinea denied those claims.
#2
How the hell does someone even figure out inflation that high?
Seems to me by the time they finish the figuring, the inflation rate has gone up again.
Inflation: Mugabe's version of a revolving door ... spinning at the speed of light.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/02/2008 16:28 Comments ||
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#3
Wowsers,
That's worse than the days of the Weimar republic.
Can you imagine having to print currency with enough zeros to keep up with that.
I mean a 10,000,000,000,000,000 note for a loaf of bread.
Reminds me of the great market panic in the Vega sector in 435.07
#3
1. Cut cable.
2. Wait for telecom company to locate cut.
3. Splice in monitoring connection elsewhere before the original cut is repaired.
4. Repeat.
Bwahahahahaha!
#6
When the Indian companies Reliance and Tata bought Flag and Tyco respectively, they signed agreements with the US Department of Homeland Security. I would think any tapping could be done at their switches.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/02/2008 12:52 Comments ||
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#7
Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast
meanwhile the Iranians have rocketed off into a Ballistic Parabola reaching the Van Allen Belts of Paranoia. [yes yes he was a speed freak...not]
LOL!
and that aMommydidaDad can fume till he goes up in vapors!
#8
Hmmm ... via Instapundit, a clue that Iran is not in fact cut off from access but rather is locking down their domestic ability to get info and news from abroad:
Regarding your recent post about Iran being cut off from the net, if you browse to http://router1.iust.ac.ir/, the node used for a benchmark at http://www.internettrafficreport.com/asia.htm, you get asked for a username and password to connect.
#1
How many muslims were part of this group, overtly or covertly? Excaliber, BP, it may be too late to do anything but emigrate.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/02/2008 13:59 Comments ||
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#2
But Dr Hand, the co-author of the report, said: Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both called for a history curriculum that fosters attachment and loyalty to Britain, but the case for promoting patriotism in schools is weak.
Are countries really appropriate objects of love? Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt. Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, its an open question whether citizens should love their countries.
Awwwwwwww...I don't think Dr. Hand had a puppy when he was little. Or has had real bad luck with the chickies...
#3
Got to hand it to the Marxist. They have done an incredible job of indoctrinating their countrymen. Fortunately, methinks they shan't survive the jihad.
Posted by: ed ||
02/02/2008 17:46 Comments ||
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CARACAS, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is seeking a $1 billion up-front payment for several large shipments of fuel oil, El Universal newspaper reported on Saturday, in what may be a new sign of cash flow problems.
Under the deal, Venezuela is selling the fuel relatively cheaply but wants payment next week, the newspaper said.
PDVSA wants to find buyers for eight very large crude carrier cargoes of fuel oil by Feb. 6 and expects payment the following day.
I almost put this in the WoT-Politics as I think Hugo qualifies as an enabler for FARC. Sounds like he may have run over the limit on his credit card
#1
Sounds like a scam in the making, you pay, and when the oil arrives, it's short a few million gallons, "Sorry shipping losses"
It'll work ONCE.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/02/2008 13:57 Comments ||
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#2
A buddy of mine works for a company who had their stuff Nationalized by Hugo. He says that because Venezuela is not spending any money on CapEx, shipments to Texas refineries will probably be cut in half this summer.
An unknown number of Army civilian employees will be investigated in connection with the unlawful distribution of a chain e-mail that makes false accusations about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
The e-mail appears to have originated at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and was sent out by civilian individuals to potentially thousands of people who work for Army Medical Command, including soldiers. In response, the Army sent a memorandum Jan. 16 through the Medical Information Technology Center to an unspecified number of soldiers in Army Medical Command warning against using government computers to distribute the e-mail.
The email accuses Obama of concealing that he is a radical Muslim, that he disrespects the American flag and that he was sworn into office with his hand on the Koran. The Army memorandum, which was first reported in the Boston Globe, stated: Currently there is an e-mail floating around with the Subject line: Who is Barack Obama. Like virtually all chain e-mails, this one is false.
The investigation into the actions of the Army civilians will be conducted by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency that looks into allegations of illegal practices among federal employees and protects the merits of others, such as whistle-blowers. We are going to be opening cases, said OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell, who could not speculate on the number of people who will be investigated because of the possibility that it may have been distributed to thousands of people. My own feeling is that this is the tip of the iceberg.
The e-mail thread obtained by Army Times shows that the message began to circulate outside the government and reached an AMEDD employee before going out to a wide distribution list in that department. New technologies make it easier for you to do stupid things on government time, on government computers by federal employees to other federal employees, Mitchell said, explaining that the chain e-mail sent by civilians at AMEDD is a violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity of federal employees.
INS Jalashwa (river horse or hippopotamus in Sanskrit) formerly USS Trenton was bought from the US in 2007
The five naval personnel who were killed on Friday night on board warship INS Jalashwa, died due to inhaling of Hydrogen Sulphide gas, leaking from one of the compartments of the vessel.
The personnel comprised a repair party, which was working on one of the shafts when the leak took place, a Naval spokesman said on Saturday. "The Naval personnel were carrying out maintenance work and died by inadvertently inhaling the leaking gas and not due to any fire or any other cause," he said. Five Naval personnel were killed and three injured critically in during a Naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal on Friday.
The deceased sailors have been identified as KVR Krishna Rao, D R Kumar Chaitanya, Ramesh Kumar Nayak, Deepak Shivran, and Narendra Yadav, all members of the repair team. Among those injured are Lt Cdr Sweth Gupta, Lt Ruchir Prasad and electrician Yatish Pawar. All the three injured are being airlifted to Port Blair from the ship for further medical treatment. An IAF AN-32 transport aircraft has been positioned at Port Blair to bring back the dead bodies to Vishakhapatnam.
The accident took place on board the Jalashwa while the ship was taking part in the Naval exercises between Visakhapatanam and Port Blair.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/02/2008 12:24 ||
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#1
Why would there be deadly levels of HS on the ship?
India and the US have agreed to cooperate in the exploration and use of space for peaceful purposes, including in human space flight, under an agreement signed between their space agencies.
A framework agreement establishing the terms for future cooperation between the Indian Space Research Organisation and National Aeronautics and Space Administration was signed on Friday at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair.
"I am honoured to sign this agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation," Griffin said.
"This agreement will allow us to cooperate effectively on a wide range of programmes of mutual interest. India has extensive space related experience, capabilities and infrastructure, and will continue to be a welcome partner in NASA's future space exploration activities," he said.
According to the framework agreement, the two agencies will identify areas of mutual interest and seek to develop cooperative programmes or projects in Earth and space science, exploration, human space flight and other activities.
The agreement replaces a soon-to-expire agreement signed on 16th December 1997, which fostered bilateral cooperation in the areas of Earth and atmospheric sciences.
In addition to a long history of cooperation in Earth science, NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation are also cooperating on India's first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, which will be launched later this year.
NASA is providing two of the 11 instruments on the spacecraft - the moon mineralogy mapper instrument and the miniature synthetic aperture radar instrument.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/02/2008 12:17 ||
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Flu season is in full swing, with wide outbreaks in 11 states and a new strain is starting to emerge that this year's vaccine doesn't specifically target, the government's public health chief said Friday. People still should get their flu shot, and there's plenty available, Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press.
So far, the majority of flu cases are being caused by strains that are a good match to the vaccine and it should provide some cross-protection against the new bug, too, Gerberding stressed. "We're still very optimistic" about the protection, Gerberding said. "If people haven't gotten their flu shot, it really is still not too late."
Every year, the flu infects up to 20 percent of the population, causes the hospitalization of 200,000 people and kills 36,000. Flu is a virus, but it can make its victims vulnerable to bacterial infections, in the lungs or the bloodstream, at the same time.
Children are at particular risk, and the CDC this week sent an alert to doctors to watch for young flu victims who might also have such bacterial infections as the notorious drug-resistant staph known as MRSA. Last year, the CDC learned of 73 children who died from flu, and 44 percent of them had a bacterial co-infection mostly staph. Compared to earlier years, that's a five-fold increase in staph piggybacking on kids' flu.
While the CDC's newest flu report lists one child death so far this year, Gerberding wanted to be sure that doctors test for staph in any child with a suspicious illness "because these bacteria need special treatment, and we want to make sure they get the right therapy."
Each year's vaccine contains protection against three influenza strains two members of the nasty Type A family, an H1N1 and an H3N2 version, plus a milder Type B that experts predict will cause the most illness. So far this year, H1N1 is causing the vast majority of disease, Gerberding said.
But a new H3N2 strain emerged near the end of Australia's flu season, too late to be included in the U.S. vaccine. Called H3N2/Brisbane-like, it is now sickening Americans, although it still is making for a small proportion of cases, Gerberding cautioned.
Some 132 million doses of vaccine were produced this year, more than ever before. It's too early to know how many people got vaccinated, but Gerberding said a record number of doses were distributed to doctors and other vaccine providers and that there is still some available.
CDC has found flu affecting most of the country but widespread outbreaks in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. MRSA piggybacking on Influenza is troubling.
#4
Wait - somebody (other than the unelected rulers) has been allowed to make a profit in the Socialist Democratic Republic of EUro-stan?
Hooda thunk it?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/02/2008 16:10 Comments ||
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#5
"The Confederation of European Paper Industries ... described it as the "first direct EU tax in history", as it even stipulates how the monies raised should be spent by member states. "
But hardly the last - they're just warming up, don'tcha know.
Bend over for your masters, EUropeans. Appears the only choice you peasants have is K-Y or Vaseline.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/02/2008 16:14 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The question of who should control Britney Spears' affairs was posed in a court filing Friday, as her parents made a surprise appearance at a conservatorship hearing while their daughter was under psychiatric evaluation in a nearby 
Military officials, rebels and international aid workers confirmed fighting around the presidential palace. Clashes began early Saturday 20 kilometers outside the capital, before engulfing the city center. Residents in N'Djamena say they heard increasingly intense heavy arms fire. They say rebels occupied the east and south of the capital, and that there was fighting around the airport as well.
